Janet Cardona is usually a by-the-book good girl, but when Matt Carrington won’t give her cat back, she sees red. Rules mean nothing when there’s an animal to be saved. So when she’s caught in a burglary and blackmailed for it, she finds she can’t refuse. Matt only needs her to pretend to be his wife for a day or two so that he can run a scam he’s involved in. But once the pretense gets going, he begins to yearn for the real thing. Now Janet has to decide if she can let herself fall for a con man.

As a treat I have an excerpt from the book for you too. Sit back, grab a coffee and read.

She found the phone on a small, lacquer table, picked up the receiver, and dialed. How easy it was to dial out. She felt like a prisoner here, yet she could call out whenever she pleased. She could so easily call home—even call the police . . . She gazed down the hallway, half expecting Matt to jump out at her at any moment, but there was no sign of anyone.
“Hello?”
She laughed with relief. There was still a real world out there after all.
“Baxter,” she said affectionately, “it’s so good to hear your voice.”
“Janet, where are you?” Baxter sounded cranky. “You never showed up yesterday, and Howie and I have been here waiting since dawn. We’ve got that special edition on spores to lay out.”
“I know, and I’m really sorry to leave you two in the lurch, but I might not be in for a while.”
“You mean until after lunch?”
“I mean until after Thursday,” she said, hoping it was an exaggeration.
“What?” His outrage echoed in her head. “Where are you?”
She hesitated. What in the world was she going to tell him? If she told him the truth, he and Howie would be over here in no time, ready to rescue her. She couldn’t have that.
“None of your business, Baxter. I do have a private life, you know.”
She waited for him to laugh. Her indignant speech had certainly sounded phony to her and she expected him to see right through it. But for some reason, he seemed to believe her.
His voice was hushed, incredulous. “Are you … are you with some guy, Janet?” he asked.
She sighed. At least here she could go with the truth. “Yes, Baxter. As a matter of fact, I am.”
“Oh.”
There was a long silence. Neither one of them knew what to say next.
“Janet?” Baxter ventured at last.
“What?”
“Don’t . . . don’t do anything crazy.”
“Of course not.”
“I mean . . . Howie and I . . . You know we . . . well, we care about you and if you need any help or anything . . .”
Inexplicably, tears welled in her eyes. She hadn’t expected that. Since her father had died, those two were all she had left in the world. Except Alexander, of course. But to know they felt that way too touched her heart.
“Thank you, Baxter,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “Goodbye.” She put down the receiver and stood for a moment, her hand still on it, blinking away the moisture in her eyes. What great guys.

***

Helen Conrad is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than 90 romances (over 15 million copies sold) published under various pseudonyms with Harlequin, Silhouette, Loveswept, and others. She is currently revamping and rewriting much of her backlistómainly into the Destiny Bay Romances Series. The first six, the Forever Yours Series, are being rewritten as Sweet Editions.

“The Destiny Bay Romances take place in the sort of beach town I’ve always loved–and now I live in one! But writing about beach towns came first and this series is centered on the rich, influential Carrington family living along the California Coast, and in Hawaii. These are good-looking, fast-driving, hard-hitting men and women whose impulses lead them into trouble every time–and inevitably to fall in love.

The original series includes language and love scenes that aren’t, for the most part, especially harsh and explicit–but some of my readers from my years writing sweets for Harlequin as Raye Morgan have asked if we couldn’t have sweet and clean versions–and I thought–what a good idea!

These are basically the same stories…but with the conflicts softened a bit, the language cleaned up, and no explicit love scenes. There are still a few adult situations, but they’re muted. Consider these the PG versions.

I hope you enjoy them!”

And then there is the Tour-Wide Giveaway

– US Grand Prize: $20 Amazon gift card and paperbacks of Run Run Runaway, A Little Blackmail, and Moving Too Fast
– INT Grand Prize: $20 Amazon gift card and ebooks of Run Run Runaway, A Little Blackmail, and Moving Too Fast
– 2 sets of ebooks of Run Run Runaway, A Little Blackmail, and Moving Too Fast (INT)